Environmental and socio-economic assessment of an off-grid renewable energy system for an improved electric mobility

Abstract

The electrification of the transportation sector is expected to mitigate the significant impacts coming from both energy production and road mobility. As a consequence, the energy production/distribution/consumption path is expected to be substantially affected, as well as policies and regulations. The most promising outcome of this strategy is represented by the opportunity of enhancing the use of sustainable energy sources and of substituting the diffused emissions of road traffic with more centralized, and therefore more monitored and manageable, emission points within energy production plants. In this work, a novel renewable energy system for recharging electric vehicles in an off-grid configuration is analysed. The system produces electricity from photovoltaic and syngas, the latter obtained from wood biomass. The assessment is performed by means of the LEAF integrated procedure, coupling the life cycle assessment and emergy accounting perspectives. This multi-criteria procedure is paired with the calculation of emergy conversion factors based on LCA inventories, reinforcing the bond between the two methods. This novel procedure develops and analyses different methodological and material scenarios. The case study is confirmed as a feasible strategy, compared to the common electricity production and fossil fuel road mobility, simultaneously dealing with renewable energy production, waste recovery and remote areas development, in a circular economy perspective.